1991 Oakland Hills Fire

I was on the wildlandfire hotlist forums this morning when I came across this thread on the 1991 Oakland Hills Fires that burned from Oct. 19 to Oct. 22, 2001. I was curious so I followed the links referred to in that hotlist forum thread. The first one is from the the Mercury Newst about a photographer, Richard Misrach. who witnessed and then photographed the fire.

In addition there was a link to Always Remember where I learned more about this fire. I learned that the fire destroyed 3,354 structures, 790 in one hour on a Sunday morning after the fire went out of control. The fire started later in the day on a Saturday, by later Saturday evening the blaze was confined to five acres and was to be mopped up on Sunday morning. Only Sunday morning came with Red Flag conditions and high winds. During mop-up, a spark got away in the winds and the fire was out of control by about 11:15 AM. By noon, 790 homes were destroyed. You will want to read the Always Remember article and follow the links at the bottom of that page to view some photos of the fire.

Twenty-five people died including at least two responders.

I'd like to thank the webmaster of the NJFFS Section B10 website for embedded the video. When I watched the video, the final piece to today's article fell in place.

I am glad that my wonderings on the web this morning brought this catastrophic fire to my attention. At the time of the fire, I believe that I was completely immersed in some graduate school exams. So it is entirely possible that I knew nothing about this fire. I do know, and am stunned by the amount of damage done.